Crisis Management Starts Before the Plan

Why the moment of acknowledgement is the first board decision

Crisis management does not start with a plan. It starts with a moment.

The moment a leadership team acknowledges: this is not business as usual.

Timing is crucial. If you acknowledge too late, you may already be too late. If you acknowledge too early, you may trigger investments and actions that later prove unnecessary. The most difficult part is not reacting. It is recognizing the inflection point with enough clarity to act decisively, but not prematurely.

Once that moment is acknowledged, the next risk is emotional decision-making.

Crises trigger emotions. Pressure rises. Uncertainty expands. In that environment, decisions made on instinct or fear often look “fast” but rarely remain “right” for long. What helps is structure: bringing the right people to the table and creating conditions for calm, fact-based discussion.

In practice, this means two things.

First, you need information with depth and range, the best available insight at that moment, not perfect data. Second, you need the right team dynamic: a setting where open discussion is possible and where emotions are contained rather than amplified.

It is striking how quickly a small group of strong people, working with the same facts, can produce a handful of viable ideas. Not dozens. A few. Enough to build a plan.

That plan needs to be as solid as possible based on evidence, not hope, and then executed with discipline. This is how crises are managed: acknowledgement, clarity, plan, execution, stabilization. In times of rising uncertainty, this becomes a repeatable leadership capability, not an exceptional event.

The board has a distinct role in this sequence.

Boards are not there to manage operations. But boards are crucial in identifying that first moment of acknowledgement, especially when management hesitates, misses signals, or is not incentivized to label a situation as a crisis early enough.

This is one reason independent directors matter. The board must be able to form an independent view of reality. Ideally, board and management are aligned on the timing. But governance cannot depend on ideal situations. The board must be able to say, "This is not business as usual," regardless of whether management is ready to say it.

When boards do that well, their role becomes supportive: backing management through the crisis while maintaining an independent perspective on risk, pace, and consequences.

I have seen this most clearly in situations where leadership itself became the crisis.

For example, when a CEO had to be replaced overnight, the organization entered an immediate destabilization phase. If leadership changes trigger further exits in the management team, the impact multiplies. The same method applies: acknowledge reality, get the right people at the table fast, create a plan, execute, stabilize.

Can crises be prevented? Sometimes yes, often no.

By definition, crises contain an element of surprise. But organizations can reduce vulnerability through preparation. Scenario planning helps working not only with a base case, but also with worst-case and best-case assumptions. More importantly, preparation starts with a deep understanding of the business: what drives profitability, which segments and regions create strength, and what detracts from performance.

If you understand the drivers and detractors early, you do not need to wait until problems become obvious to everyone. You can see disruptions sooner, and you can prepare options before urgency turns into panic.

There is one additional factor that is often underestimated: culture.

A culture that fosters agility is not about speed for its own sake. It is about mindset: curiosity, hunger for knowledge, and openness to what is changing. This has nothing to do with the age of the company or the age of individuals. It is about whether the organization stays alert.

The healthiest companies I have seen combine generations well: younger talent bringing new perspectives, and experienced leaders staying tuned, curious, and willing to embrace what is new. That cultural feature does not prevent surprises, but it creates resilience. When disruption arrives, the organization does not collapse into denial. It moves.

Crisis management is often described as a leadership skill. It is also a governance responsibility.

Because the first decision, the moment you acknowledge reality, sets the trajectory for everything that follows.

Rada Rodriguez